PA wraps up store-to-store campaign ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency July 6, 2010 - 12:00am After visiting most of the shops in the West Bank, Palestinian Authority Minister of the Economy Hassan Abu Lubda said the "store-to-store" campaign promoting the boycott of settlement goods had come to an end. A statement announced the end of the project, which saw hundreds of volunteers coordinated by government and bodies to go to shops - mostly food and mini-markets - with lists of goods produced in settlements and promoting the government-led boycott. » Read more

Israel Details Easing of Its Gaza Blockade ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times by Isabel Kershner - July 6, 2010 - 12:00am Israel on Monday announced details of the easing of its blockade of Gaza, and the Israeli defense minister held a rare face-to-face meeting here with the Palestinian prime minister in a flurry of activity apparently intended to show diplomatic momentum ahead of the Israeli prime minister’s meeting with President Obama, scheduled for Tuesday in Washington. » Read more

Gazans: We were used as 'human shields' ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews July 6, 2010 - 12:00am A series of testimonies in a report probing Operation Cast Lead suggest that IDF soldiers used Gazans as human shields. The report – exclusively obtained by Ynet – was compiled by the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel (PCATI) and Adalah – The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, and focuses mainly on violation of Palestinian prisoners' rights by the Israeli military during the Gaza war. » Read more

B'Tselem: Settlements must be evacuated ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency July 6, 2010 - 12:00am Forty-two percent of the West Bank is governed by settlement councils, Israeli rights organization B'Tselem revealed in a new settlements study, published Tuesday. Released as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu prepares to meet with US President Barack Obama in Washington, the report By Hook and by Crook: Israel's Settlement Policy in the West Bank, uses government reports, Civil Administration maps and military documents to compile a picture of "the mechanisms used to gain Israeli control of land in the West Bank." » Read more

Palestinian state now ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews by Orly Azoulay - July 6, 2010 - 12:00am The prime minister will undergo a corrective experience in the White House Tuesday: President Obama will shake his hand before the cameras, utter a few polite words of encouragement, and later serve the PM a strictly kosher lunch. It won’t be like Netanyahu’s previous visit, which was held far away from the cameras, almost in hiding, amid a sour atmosphere and bearing the characteristics of a military hazing ceremony. » Read more

Israel's rocky friendship with Barack Obama ATFP World Press Roundup Article from BBC News by Jeremy Bowen - (Opinion) July 6, 2010 - 12:00am Benjamin Netanyahu does not have a great history with the occupants of the Oval Office. He got off to a bad start with Bill Clinton during his first term as Israel's prime minister in the 1990s. After he lectured Mr Clinton about the Arab-Israeli conflict the president was not happy. "Who the heck does he think he is?" he expostulated. "Who's the hecking superpower here?" Only according to the witness, a diplomat called Aaron Miller, he did not say "heck". It is safe to say that Mr Netanyahu's relations with President Obama have been disastrous. » Read more

Obama-Netanyahu talks need concessions for an Israeli-Palestinian deal ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor (Editorial) July 2, 2010 - 12:00am A year has passed since President Obama vowed the US would not to turn its back on the Palestinians and their “aspiration for ... a state of their own.” On Tuesday he meets with the one man most able to create that new state: Benjamin Netanyahu, prime minister of Israel. Their talks at the White House will have many purposes, such as lessening the estrangement between the two leaders and bolstering US support of Israel at a time when it is very isolated. But Mr. Obama should not forget his promise to the Palestinians and must extract concessions from Mr. Netanyahu. » Read more

Settlements are a blockade to peace ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian by Seth Freedman - (Opinion) July 6, 2010 - 12:00am There are plenty of thorns in the side of the peace process, but none as sharp and intractable as Israel's settlement programme. For decades, successive Israeli governments have persisted in their obstinate policies in the West Bank to the detriment of civilians on both sides, despite knowing full well that no lasting peace deal can ever be reached without an end to the settlement enterprise. » Read more

Tax-Exempt Funds Aid Settlements in West Bank ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times by Ethan Bronner, Mike McIntire, Jim Rutenberg - July 6, 2010 - 12:00am Twice a year, American evangelicals show up at a winery in this Jewish settlement in the hills of ancient Samaria to play a direct role in biblical prophecy, picking grapes and pruning vines. Believing that Christian help for Jewish winemakers here in the occupied West Bank foretells Christ’s second coming, they are recruited by a Tennessee-based charity called HaYovel that invites volunteers “to labor side by side with the people of Israel” and “to share with them a passion for the soon coming jubilee in Yeshua, messiah.” » Read more

The Palestinians have set the stage for Netanyahu's Washington trip ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ibishblog by Hussein Ibish - (Opinion) July 6, 2010 - 12:00am This week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his entourage will be visiting Washington and meeting with Pres. Obama tomorrow, but it all comes very much in the context of last month's highly successful trip by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and an entourage of PLO leaders, the centerpiece of which was a meeting on June 9 with Obama in the White House. The logic of the Abbas visit, which had originally been scheduled to follow one week after a similar meeting between Obama and Netanyahu, originally seemed lost due to Netanyahu's cancelation of his meeting. » Read more